Machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards.



No. 760,811. PATBNTED MAY 24.1904.

1-". S. SLAUTER.

, I MACHINE FOR SEWING HOOKS AND EYES ON CARDS:

APPLICATION FILED JULY 27, 1903. no MODEL. 7 GIEBBTB-EHBET 1.

PATBNTED MAY 24, 1904.

F.S.SLAUTER.

I MACHINE FOR SEWING HOOKS AND EYES 0N GARDS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

H0 MODEL- l I I4- YM: NPIIIS PETERS 0Q. moro-Llfna, WASHINGTON n. cy

No. 760,811. PATENTED MAY 24-, 1904.

F'. s. SLAUTBR. MAGHINE FOR szzwme nooxs- AND EYESjjDN CARDS. APPLICATION TILED JULY 27, 1903'.

R0 MODEL. 3 3HEETS-SHBBT 3.

UNITED STAT- s Patented 1122.724, 1904.

I PATENT OF IC '1.FRANjKLIns;s-LAUTER, OF DERBY, coNNEoTIcUT;

IlIIAC HI NEFOR SEWING HOOKS AND EYES ON'CAIR'DS.

simcm cAmioiv forming part of Letters Patent n ofveasii, dated. May 24,1904.

" Application fiiedfiui zv, 1903.

To whom it may concern:

., Be it known thatI, FRANKLIN S. sLAeeER, of

v Derby, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful j Improvement in Machines for. Sewing Hooks and Eyes on Cards;,and I do hereby declare ,the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the characters freference' marked thereon, to be a full, clear,

and exact description of the'same, and which said drawings constitute'partof this specification, and represent, in Y Figure 1 a view in front elevation of one form which a machine constructed in accordance with my'invention may assume; Fig. 1, a detached view in cross-section of the chute which receives the. eyes in bulk from the hop!- per; Fig. 2,,a detached broken view, in vertical section, on the line a b of Fig. 3, showing the eye-feed slide and the cam for operating the same; Fig. 8, abroken. plan view of the table of the machine; Fig. 4, a view in vertical transverse section thr'ough the table on the line '0 d of Fig. 3, showing the individual hookreceivers, the sliding carrier therefor, and also the eye-feed plate a'ndthe eye-feed slide; Fig.

5, abroken edge view of the carrier, showing the ratchet-teeth formed thereon, the. detent co'acting with those teeth, and the cam by which the detent is operated; Fig 6, a de+ tached broken reverseplan view'of the carrier", showing the locationof its ratchet-teeth with respect to theholesformed in it for the reception of the shanks of the individual hook-re-- ceivers; Fig.7, an' enlarged broken detail view showing the eye-feed plate in its relation or engaging position by broken lines; Fig. 10,

a corresponding view showing the hookand eyeafter they have been engaged by the operation of the eye-feed plate andlmoved upon the card into position for being stitched thereto;

Serial No. 167,120. (No niodel.) 1

- Fig. 11', a detached plan view showinga modified form of carrier for the hook-receivers.

"My invention relates to a machine for sewing hooks and eyes to cards, either separately or engaged with each other, the object being to provide for this purpose a simple, reliable, and rapid machine in which the handling of the individual pieces is reduced to the minimum.

With these ends in view my invention'consists in a machine having certain details of con- 'struction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

' In carrying out my invention as herein shown I have applied its features to a sewingmachine, which may be of any approved type and which does not,-therefore, need anydetailed description. I furnish such a'sewingmachine with an outwardly-pitched hopper 2,

provided at its higher-upper end with a lug 3,

connected by apivot L with a bracket '5,located atthe upper end of an upright 6, secured to the table 7 of the machine.

hopper rests upon a cam 8, secured to a shaft 9, furnished with a pulley 10, driven by a belt 11, whereby the hopper is constantly vibrated. Eyes in bulkare put into this'hopper and discharged by it into an inwardly-pitchedchute 12, secured to an arm 13 of the upright 6'aforesaid. This chute 12 is concave in cross-section. and formedin the center of its bottom with a shallow channel 14, adaptedin width to receive the eyes which gravitate into it from the concaved sides of the chute, which discharges them upon a Vertically-arranged knife-like track 15, which is straddled, so to speak, by so many of the eyes as are presented open end fore- "most as they fall from the chute. Those eyes which are not so presented are not caught by the track, but fall down on either side of it and are gathered up and returned to the hopper by any convenient means. The lower portion of the track is formed upon itsupper edge with a rib16, round in cross-section and gradually developed or enlarged from a small diameter up to a diameter virtually fitting the loop or circle of an eye, thisrib being practically enlarged from about the v point a in The lower end of this Fig. 1 to about the point 7). From the point I) the rib is uniform in size to its extreme lower end, (designated by c.) The flat lower end or face of the track is parallel with the upper face of the table 7, from which it is separated by a narrow space 17 a trifle wider than an eye is thick, but not as wide as two eyes placed one on the other. Under this construction one eye will always be fed ontothe of an eye. A slot 19 leading out of the bottom of the said notch, is provided for clearing the humps of the hooks, as will appear later on. The rear end of this plate is formed with a slot 20, through which the plate is adjustably secured by a screw-bolt 21 and a washer 22 to the forward end of a dovetail slide 23, located in adovetail groove 24, formed in the longitudinal center of the inner portion of the table 7. The said slide 23, and hence the eye feed 18, is reciproeated back and forth by means of an elbow-like arm 25, rigidly secured to the lower face of the slide and provided at its lower end with an antifriction-roller 26, entering the groove 27 of a boX- cam 28, mounted upon a shaft 29, which because it is added to a sewing-machine for the purpose of driving the parts of my improved apparatus I shall hereinafter speak of as the auxiliary shaft. This auxiliary shaft carries a large cut gear 30, meshed into by a pinion 31 on the main shaft 32 of the machine, whereby the auxiliary shaft is driven.

In the feeding or outward excursion of the eye-feed 18 it passes through the said space 17 and under theextreme, lower end of the track and picks up, as it were, the semidetached or lowermost eye, which is resting directly upon the upper face of the table and supporting the column of eyes on the track. The said lowermost eyeis not, however, picked up or moved by the eye-feed until the eye has been virtually surrounded by its entrance into the deep notch of the eye-feed. .As soon as this takes place the feed begins to move the eye, which 'it pushes along over an assembling-plate 33, having a clearance-slot 33 and let into the table 7, with the face of which it is flush. The eye rides onto the said plate and is supported by those portions thereof lying along the slot, which exposes the loop of the eye to the beak of the hook, which is lifted up from below, as will now be explained. While the eye is momentarily resting upon the plate, due to the pausing of the eye-feed, brought about by the proper shaping of the path 27 of the box-cam 28, the hooks are fed by hand (or, if preferred, a feeding device may be devised for the purpose) into wedge-shaped pockets 34', having outwardly-inclined bottoms and formed in individual vertically-movable hookreceivers 34, havingsquared shanks 35 and arranged in line in a dovetail carrier 36, located in a dovetail groove 37, formed in the table '7, located at a right angle to the dovetail groove 24, before mentioned, and extending directly under. the assembling-plate 33, with the slot 33 of which the hooks are brought into registration by the longitudinal step-by-step movementof the carrier, which is furnished with a series of squared holes 38 for the reception of the shanks 35 of the individual hook-receivers, which are successively lifted when brought to rest under the assembling plate. (For the independent vertical movement of these receivers I employ a. lifter 39, sliding in a bracket 40, secured to the lower face of the table 7 and furnished at its lower end with an antifriction-roller 41, riding upon a cam 42, mounted on the auxiliary shaft 29 aforesaid. At its upper end the lifter is formed with a finger 43, adapted to enter the lower ends of the holes 38 in the carrier 36 for engagement with the lower ends of the shanks 35 of the receivers 33, whereby the receivers are individually lifted when their shanks are brought into registrationwith the finger 43 ofthe lifter by the longitudinal step-by-stcp movement of the carrier 36, which is furnished at its rear end with a cord 44, passing over a roller 45 and terminating in a weight 46, which is employed to move the carrier rearwardly as it is periodically released by the action of a plunger-like detent 47, engaging with a series of ratchet-teeth 48, formed upon the lower face of the carrier along the outer edge thereof. A cam 49 on the shaft 29 is employed toretraet the detent to release the carrier to the action of the weight. The detent47 is lifted into reengagement with the ratchetteeth 48 by means of a spring 50 of suflicient power to. make the return movement of the detent very quick. The length of the ratchetteeth 48 is so proportioned to the distance between the holes 38 in the carrier that the movement of the same tln'oughthe distance represented by one tooth causes the holes in the carrier to be successively registered with the finger 43 of the lifter 39. The carrier is drawn manually against its counterweight 46 into its extreme forward or loading position,

in which it is held by the engagement of the detent 47 with its forward ratchet-tooth. In this position of the carrier all of the hook-receivers are loaded with hooks. This may be done, as stated, by hand, or some special means may be devised for the purpose. .It

I will be observed by reference to Figs. 9'and of the drawings thatvas the pockets in the individual hook-receivers have outwardly- I pitched bottoms the hooks take inclined positions therein, with. the effect of tilting their I beaks upward. This facilitates the engage- IOI I thatthe carrier is automatically released and 1 the loops of the eyes.

ment of the eyes withthe hooks, the beaks of which are presented-inwardtoward the loops oftheeyes. N It will be understood from the foregoing moved rearward step by step and that its individual-hooloreceivers are successively lifted to raise the hooks carried by them into position for being engaged by eyes successively brought into place over them on the assembling plate by means of the eye-feed, which is thereto properly timed. As the hooks are raised their beaks are lifted'through the clearance-slot of the assembling-plate and enter At the same time the humps of the hooks, ifthey are hooks of that: kind, rise through the clearanceeslot-l9 of the eye-feed 18. After theeyes have been engaged with the hooks the engaged pairs of hooks and eyes are moved by the eye feed as. I the same completes its feeding or outward excursion upon a paper card51, placed in a shallow recess 52, formed in the upper face of the table andextending transversely across the same, this groove being locateddirectly under the two needles 53, which'belong to the sewing-machine proper, and having a cooperdirectly below the lower end of the same and supports the column of eyes thereupon; but this lowermost eye is not picked up by the eyefeed and moved thereby until the eye-feed has moved sufficiently to surround the eye by the walls of its deep notch l9'.' Then as the eyefeed'continues to move outwa-rd it occupies. the saidspace 17-.and prevents the eyes on the track 1 from riding downward off the same.

Instead of that the now lowermost eye rides upon the upper face of the eye-feed. The

eye-feed continues to move the eye which it has. picked up, as described, until the same has been brought into a predetermined position on the'assembling-plate 33, the clearance slot 33 of which is too narrow to allow the eye to drop down through it. I The eye-feed now tempol aril y rests." The machine is timed so that when the eye hasbeen brought to rest in this position it is directlyover a hook'in one of 5 the independent Vertically-movable hook-receivers, which is now lifted from its loading position, in which it is shown by full lines in Fig. 9., to its discharging position, in which it is shown by broken lines in that figure. As 7 ,the hook-receiver is lifted .the tilted beak of 'the hook rises up throughthe slot of the plate and enters the loop of the eye. The eye feed now starts upagain and while the hook remains at rest moves the eye outward until it is fully engagedwith the hook.

The eye-feed now rests momentarily again, while the hookrecelver moves down into its loadingpositlon either by the action of gravity or by the action of a suitably-arranged spring. The eye-- 30 feed now starts up again and delivers the combined hook and eye. upon the card,- the hook being dragged along after the eye and riding -up over the lifting-bevel 55, formed in the ta ble 7 in line with the path of the'eye-fe'ed. 5

As soon as the hook and eye have. beenbrought" to rest uponthe card the foot 53 -of the-"se-wing-machinedescends and engages." with the beak of the hook with suflicient force to hold the same in placei The-eye-feed is now re- 9 ;tracted to the limit of its inward or idle excursion.

the, two needles 5353 pass through the rear thread-loops of the eye and hook and sews them to the-card. The card feed '54 then moves, the card a step to bring the forward thread-loops of the eye and hook into registration with the-needles, which again descend and complete the sewing of'the eye and hook to the-carol. The detent 47 is nowv in the I timing of the machine momentarilydrawn downward to allow the carrier to move one.

step rearward, whereby another hook-receiven I I with its hook is brought into position under the assembling-plate.

its outward or feeding excursion and the c cle of operations above rehearsed is repeated.

,otherhand, hooksalone might be sewed to cards, in which no eyes would befed to the machine, or the machine might be made to I2 omit the hook-feeding devices or to omit the eye-feeding devices, as might be desired.

Of course it will be understood that the op-' eration of these attachments is only one-half as, fast as the operation of the needle-head of 11 the sewing-machine, for the reason that for every complete operation of thechook and eye instrumentalities the sewing-machine has to take two independent sets of stitches;

If desired, the apparatus may be used simply to 'sewxeyesto cards, in which caseno hooks would be fed to the machine. On the Again, the machine might be made to do double 7 the amount of workv by simplyIduplicatin-g all of the instrumentalities described and providing the needle-head with-"four needles in-' stead of two. I I Instead of employing a reciprocating car-f The needle-head.now,dcscends,and I The slide "now begins I 5 rier for the hook-receivers I might locate the same in a rotating carrier in form of a dial 56, as shown in Fig. 11, and rotate-the same step by stepby-means of any of the ratchet-and-pawl mechanisms used for operating dials in auto' matic assembling-machines. In the said figure of the drawings I have shown springs 57 for forcing the hook-receivers down into their loading positions. Such springs might of course be used with a sliding carrier, as already suggested. As shown, the assemblingplate 33 is made independently of and set down into the table 7 of the machine, and this will probably be found to be the most convenient construction; but of course the dovetail groove formed in the table for the reception of the dovetail carrier might be made without cutting away any portion of the face of the table, which would then be bridged, as it were, over the slot. A clearance-slot corresponding to the slot 33 could then be formed in this integral bridge, which would be the equivalent of the assembling-plate 33. This is such an obvious matter that it is thought not to require illustration. I would therefore have it understood that I do not limit myself to the construction shown and described, but hold myself at liberty to make such changes and alterations therein as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of my invention.

' Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, an eye-track between the lower end of which and the table a space narrower than the thickness of two eyes'is formed, a flat plate-like eye-feed mounted upon the said table and having its forward end formed with a deep notch the bottom of which is rounded to the contour of the loop of an eye, means for reciprocating the said eye-feed, and hook-feeding instrumentalities located below the surface of the said table and constructed and arranged to successively lift the hooksto the eyes as the same are being conveyed by the eye-feed from the eyetrack to the sewing instrumentalities.

2. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, an eye-track between the lower end of which and the table a space a little narrower than the thickness of two eyes is formed, an eye-feed entering the said space, and aseries of hook-receivers located below the face of the table for presenting hooks to the eyes after which theeye-feed moves the combined hooks and eyes under the needles of the machine.

3. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, an eye-track between the lower end of which and the table a space jis formed, a carrier, independently-operated hook-receivers mounted in the said carrier, 'means for successively lifting the said hookreceivers, whereby the hooks carried by them are presented to the eyes, and an eye-feed arranged to feed an eye from the said space, engage it with a hook lifted into position for such engagement by one of the hook-receivers and move the combined hook and eye under the needles.

4. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, an eye-track, a reciprocating eye-feed operating between the lower end of the track and the table, a step-by-step carrier located in the said table, a series of independent vertically-movable hook-receivers mounted in the said carrier and each adapted to present a hook in an inclined position to an eye, and means for successively lifting the said hook-receivers, whereby the hooks are brought into position for engagement with the eyes which are moved over them by the eyefeed which then moves the combined hooks and eyes under the needles of the sewing instrumentalities.

5. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, an eye-track, an eyefeed moving between the lower end of the eyetrack and the table to feed the eyes fed by the eye-track onto the table, a slotted assemblingplate upon which the eyes are moved by the eye-feed, and hook-feeding instrumentalities for feeding hooks to the under face of the said plate through the slot of which their beaks are lifted for engagement by the eyes.

6. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, a carrier, verticallymovable hook-receivers mounted in the said carrier, devices for lifting the said hook-receivers one by one, and means for feeding the hooks when so lifted from the hook-receivers to a position under the needles of the machine.

7. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with sewing instrumentalities, of a table, an eye-track, a reciprocating eye-feed moving between the lower end of the eye-track and the table, a sliding carrier located in the table and moving at a right angle to the eye-feed, vertically-movable hook-receivers mounted in the said carrier, means for lifting the said hook-receivers one by one to bring the hooks carried by them in front of the eyes which are then engaged with the hooks and fed under the needles.

8. In a machine for sewing hooks and eyes on cards, the combination with a table, of sewing instrumentalities, eye-feeding instrumentalities located above the working face of the table, and hook feeding and lifting instrumentalities located below the working face of the table and comprising a series of hook-receivers, the said eye-feeding and hook-feeding inspecification in the presence of two subscribstrnmentalities being independently organing witnesses.

ized and constructed and arranged tosucces- 1 sively present and combine hooks and eyes FRANKLINS" SLAUTER' and move them when so combined under the Witnesses: e sewing instrumentalities. v C.- S. HATHAWAY,

In testimony whereof I have signed this 0. A. R001. 

